Lovers, collaborators, friends: the story of two inventive icons of 20th-century photography
This volume pays homage to Lee Miller (1907-77)--pioneer of Surrealist photography, war correspondent, muse and icon--and places her emphatically on a par with Man Ray (1890-1976), whose work tended to overshadow her both during her lifetime and subsequently. Through approximately 140 photographs by Miller and Man Ray, plus art works and archival imagery loaned by the Lee Miller Archives and Fondazione Marconi, Lee Miller & Man Ray: Fashion, Love, War reveals a deep but complicated relationship.
Man Ray met Miller in the spring of 1929 at a Paris bar called the Bateau Ivre. Miller was seeking photography lessons; Ray said he didn't take students and was about to depart for a vacation in Biarritz. "So am I," she replied, becoming his apprentice and then lover. They soon established creative parity, and together discovered the solarization technique; solarized works by Miller were at the time frequently attributed to Man Ray. Alongside Miller's iconic war photography, Fashion, Love, War also presents portraits by Man Ray of friends and important protagonists of the time, such as Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dal, and Surrealist portraits of Miller.